Beacon Lighting Group has enjoyed a bright start to life on the share market, with its shares soaring by more than 60 per cent.

Beacon is Australia’s largest retailer of residential lighting, ceiling fans and light globes.

The Melbourne-based company owns 71 stores, has 14 franchised stores and four commercial sales offices.

Executive chairman Ian Robinson’s family holds a 55 per cent stake in the company.

Beacon offered 45 per cent, or 96.75 million, of the company’s shares to the public, at 66 cents per share.

The shares began trading at 1100 AEST on Tuesday, and by 1410 AEST were up 40.5 cents, or 61.4 per cent, at $1.065.

The strong market debut has added $87 million to its market value, to almost $229 million.

Beacon said in its prospectus that there were opportunities for the company to take advantage of the changeover from inefficient lighting sources such as incandescent and halogen globes to more efficient LED lighting technology.

Lighting accounts for more than 12 per cent of the typical household electricity bill, it said.

With energy costs expected to continue to rise, the increase in demand for energy efficiency would continue to drive growth in the lighting category, the company said.

In the six months to the end of December 2013, Beacon made a net profit of $6.7 million, up from $5.1 million a year earlier.

That came as sales grew by 11.5 per cent to $74.5 million.

AAP